Friday, September 21, 2012

In a ring-binder in one of the antique stores we visited during our recent trip, among items stored in plastic sleeves, I found that shown below, mounted on a page numbered 185, "America's Tribute to Britain" F.G. Cooper (1921).

It had obviously been the result of canibalising some old volume of illustrations or poster-related items. The subject matter appealed to me, so as the price was meagre I bought it, thinking to put it in a small frame by my desk. I haven't framed it yet, but have done some research on the artist, Frederick G. Cooper....and learned something new along the way.

Fred G. Cooper (1883-1962) is one of the best cartoonists/illustrators you've never heard of. Born in Oregon and educated at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco, Cooper moved to New York City in 1904 to find work as a freelance artist. He created designs for New York Edison (or ConEd), Westinghouse, and the U.S. War Department, among many others. Cooper began an association with Life magazine in 1904, which lasted until the early 1930s.... drew small spot cartoons-"cartoonettes" which were often little graphic masterpieces. He also contributed covers and full page interior cartoons and illustrations.......not just an illustrator, but a fantastic graphic designer. He designed alphabets (though not Cooper Black), was one of the founding members of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

There's more detail and further illustrations of Cooper art in Parts I and II posts at a blog called Filboid Studge

What I found is an illustration of a mini-poster, bigger than illustrated but not standard poster-size, designed for publication just after the end of World War I. Original or facsimile versions of the poster are available from various sources online.

Other examples of his work:

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

I've been struggling with the new Blogger GUI, must have overlooked it. Scheduled the post to publish - it didn't, found I'd forgotten to save a change of time becuse the "save" thingie is in a different place. Every single action is taking 10 times as long as it used to. Loading everything takes forever and I'm fed up with the thing already.

Himself advises to try Firefox with the new enforced by Blogger GUI - will have to do so, but I hate Firefox also. Will continue stumbling until my eyes get used to "the dark", or Blogger fixes some obvious glitches. ;-)

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About Me

Also answers to Ann or Annie or even Twilight Annie (sounds like a character from Dickens - or Damon Runyan!)
British-born, living in the USA since 2004, US citizen since 2008.
Self-taught non-professional dabbler in astrology, which took up most of the blog-space here from Aug. 2006 to Aug. 2012. The blog now covers more general topics, along with occasional astrology- related posts. Archives can be accessed easily via links in the sidebar.